Picked up the track -&gt; race project this morning from Felixstowe. The aim is to go from it's current semi-trackday spec to race spec while doing a few trackdays on the way. I've always wanted to race (kind of in the family!) and wanted to build my own car so picked this one up as I think if offers a great starting point.

@Matt, driver's one will be going at some point to be replaced by a fixed bucket for racing.

@Sam, I hope so!

@Daver, thanks!

@Owain, shhhh! I'm going to buy a recovery truck in the next couple of months to make it easier to get around.

I've booked 2 track sessions at Brands for next Tuesday evening. They're just novice 20 min taster sessions but it gives me a chance to shakedown the car and check everything is ok before booking a full day.

Did the taster sessions yesterday evening, were good fun! Got to the circuit at about 4pm (having been on the London Eye at 11am!) and went through the noise testing, briefings etc. before I managed to nab a garage near the front of the queue

Started the session with 3 sighting laps then the safety car pulls in and we're straight into our session. Jumped 2 cars straight away on the run up to Druids as they were going a bit slow. It was a bit of a dodgy move, especially on cold tyres, and I avoided doing it again.

I spent most of the session stuck behind an MX5 who was faster out of Druids than me (my fault, was shifting down to 2nd rather than holding in 3rd and couldn't shift fast enough so often messed up the braking zone) so pulled out enough of a gap that I could quite get him down the straight. I was about 5mph faster by the end but it wasn't enough.

Unfortunately the car had very little grip, understeered everywhere and made, what I thought, was a lot of tyre squeal. For those that have done Club MSV (and possibly other) trackdays before, tyre squeal is frowned upon and will get you black flagged. Obviously I didn't want this as the session wasn't very long so I kept backing out to minimise the squeal. When I spoke to my family that had come with me, they said they couldn't hear any squeal at all so apparently it wasn't as bad as I thought!

The car is running essentially stock suspension, just some Eibach front lowering springs, with old Michelins so the lack of grip was not surprising. Another unfortunate is one of the front discs is pretty warped resulting in some dramatic steering wheel movements during braking!

My fastest lap ending up being a 1:06, it being the only clear lap I had without the MX5 in front of me! There is definitely a lot more time to find, about 1 sec in Druids alone. My Brother went out in the second session and got a 1:04 but I think we could both get down to the 1:03s if we were to go out again.

In summary, happy the car was mechanically sound; the engine ran like a dream with no temp issues at all. Unhappy that I got a slower time than my Brother.

Future plans are still roughly the same. The cage is the key thing to get first, hopefully that'll help the handling. Following that, a complete suspension overhaul with uprated parts. Then some new tyres, I've already got a tyre in mind so will see how that goes.

Couple of questions:

I'm thinking of getting a Safety Devices 17-point weld-in cage. It's a lot of money but should be good enough, thoughts?

In terms of suspension, I'd love some KW V2s but can't afford them new. Would getting a used set be a good idea? Are there other kits at a lower cost that would be good? Perhaps Spax RSX?

EDIT: Pics and video to follow, uploading them tonight when I get home.

I have KW V2's on mine and they're awesome, whether they're worth the extra money over a "lesser" setup or not is down to you, personally I'd have no problem with buying them second-hand though as long as they were coming off a car that was being broken rather than one where just the suspension has suspiciously been removed, where there might be an issue with them.

Thicker torsion bars, thicker ARB, new bushes, roller bearings, bit of camber at the front and your understeer will be next to non-existant.

Shame I'm poor at the moment, else I could just bring mine to Brands and you could see your future

I wouldn't worry about the warped disc, personally I'd just replace the lot anyway. Only costs about £80 to have new discs all round, I'd do that and know they're all straight and true.

To be honest the only thing you really need on track is the thermostatic oil cooler, which I see you already have. Just make sure you stuff some cardboard in front of it if you're just pottering about though (or it's a cold day), as your oil will never get up to temperature and your engine won't be protected properly.

To be honest the only thing you really need on track is the thermostatic oil cooler, which I see you already have. Just make sure you stuff some cardboard in front of it if you're just pottering about though (or it's a cold day), as your oil will never get up to temperature and your engine won't be protected properly.

If if had a thermostatic oil cooler, then it wont open and use the cooler until the oil is hot, cant remember the figure, but surely around 80 degrees?

If if had a thermostatic oil cooler, then it wont open and use the cooler until the oil is hot, cant remember the figure, but surely around 80 degrees?

True, but remember that's 80 degrees at the engine block, if you then take that oil and pump it out to a cooler, blow plenty of cold air over it then return it to the engine, it can easily drop in temperature too much.

I have an oil temp gauge on mine and if I drive around normal roads without blocking off the filter then the oil doesn't even register 50 degrees, which is far too cool.

The thermostatic plates are better than nothing, but unless I'm on track I'll always block up the cooler. It's just not necessary for normal driving.

Sadly I'm running your old Brembo setup, owain, so discs are slightly more expensive, as you know!

Ah yes, forgot about those. I take it all back, bad times if they're warped

demondriverdan wrote:

Currently I think the cage is the priority. While I didn't really sense a need for it yesterday, I probably won't until I see a tyre wall heading my way!

Couldn't agree more, always meant to get one fitted to my car, I hate not having one. If you consider this guy at Rockingham did this to his just trying to get LOOS on a corner, you realise how important they can be:

No other cars involved, didn't even hit anything - just rolled over a couple of times. Luckily for him he had a cage, but even that was bent out of shape.

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